The author continues hitchhiking in Alabama. A white man gives
him a ride. The white man is at first nice as he starts asking
Griffin about his family. Griffin realizes his true colors when he
makes a snide remark at his wife. He then proceeds to tell the
author how he’s had every Negro girl before they ever got on his
payroll and the author is stunned at the sheer hypocrisy of this
white man erroneously discussing the Negro’s lack of sexual
morality. The white man then asks Griffin what he is doing in
this part of the country and warns him that he will be taught a
lesson if he creates any trouble.

Finally the author gets off and continues his walk. After a long walk,
the author is very tired and goes to a wayside service station to buy
some food and drink. At first the white owners refuse, but then they relent
and sell him whatever he wants. Throughout this period, when Griffin is
eating and drinking, he is aware of the discomfort of the old couple and
therefore he leaves hurriedly.

Your browser does not support the IFRAME tag.

Then the author starts hitch hiking again and this time he is given
a ride by a young Negro sawmill worker. He tells Griffin how the whites,
in order to maintain their control over the blacks, always keeps them
in their debts, that is never allows them to completely pay off their
debts. This man takes Griffin home for the night, although he is poor
and has a large family of a wife and six kids. Although the family has
little food, they share it with the author. The author suddenly remembers
that today is the birthday of his daughter. As he looks at the children
he notices the wide difference in the lives of these children and his
own children. That night when the author goes out to urinate, he remembers,
as a youngster, reading a description of a Negro boy stopping along a
lonely path to urinate and he feels more profoundly than ever before the
totality of his Negro-ness. He remembers his own children sleeping now
in clean beds in a warm house. That night he has a nightmare, the same
one that he has been having quite often. The next day Griffin travels
to Montgomery. Sitting in the rest room, as he looks at himself in the
mirror, he notices that his face has not only acquired the skin color
of a Negro but that it has taken the forlorn expression that can be seen
on the faces of so many Negroes. That night he calls up his wife and children
and is glad to hear their voices.